God has been so good to us! The last two months have been very busy, but very good! We met our new baby, Evelyn, graduated from Bible School, packed up our apartment and moved to Oklahoma for the summer. It was very sad to say goodbye to so many friends in Wisconsin, but we are also excited to renew relationships here in Oklahoma!
We were blessed with our newest daughter, Evelyn Grace, born 5/1/18. She weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs. Evey (pronounced: Eevee) has been healthy from the beginning and growing up quick. Courtney has also done well and is enjoying every minute with our little girl! Not to mention how much Henry and Belle love their little sister!
We also graduated from Ethnos360 Bible Institute in Wisconsin just two weeks after Evey came along! God allowed us to spend two years of our family’s lives learning more about who He is through extensive study of His Word. During this time at EBI, God also enabled us to build dozens of lasting relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, both at the school and at the local church He brought us to. We truly wish everyone had this same opportunity! We are truly grateful for everyone who supported us during this time! You all made it possible!
It was difficult to leave so many friends in Wisconsin, who now seem like family! We were adopted into an amazing church family named Grace Baptist Church. There is no doubt in my mind that God took us to GBC. He even broke our car in order to get us there! Basing our initial church search on recommendations, Grace was not on our radar. But with our only car in the shop, we needed to find a church that we could walk to after moving to Wisconsin. Grace was only a couple of blocks away so we walked and found a very kind and loving body of believers that accepted us straight away. We have learned and continue to learn so much from everyone at GBC.
Grace has even adopted us as their own missionaries! We are excited to call Grace OUR church and even a church that faithfully supports us both financially and through overwhelming prayer! We are excited to continue relationships with each of you at GBC for years to come!
We are now back in Oklahoma once again for the summer! Each of our parents selflessly helped us pack our apartment and move it, all the while helping take care of a newborn. We could not have done it without them!
This summer will be very busy as well for us, as it is with each of you. We stayed at the farm with my folks for a couple of weeks and have moved down to Chickasha to stay with Courtney’s parents. Over the summer, we will continue to share the ministry that God has placed on our hearts with as many people that are willing to listen.
I also have the opportunity to go on a vision trip June 16-29 to Papua New Guinea! My dad, Courtney’s dad and Bruss Horn will also get to go with me. The purpose of the trip is to see firsthand what mission aviation and medical missions look like. Days and years of research do not compare with personal experience, so we get to fly into Goroka, PNG, to visit the NTM mission base at Lapilo. While there, we will get to see the country, visit the medical clinic, view the aviation department and even fly with NTMA-PNG into a tribe to stay overnight. I am excited to share more when we return!
Update on Henry: Our five year old son got a complicated migraine on Sunday this last weekend. He had similar symptoms as Courtney does with her migraines, but had to endure them as a very young child. It was a very traumatic experience to say the least. After a cat-scan and observation, the doctor said that there was nothing else wrong at least! Please pray with us that this is not a common experience in the future.
Just a quick reminder about our future plans: Next school year will be spent getting practical training for overseas missions at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Camdenton, Missouri. The following year (2019-2020) will be our first assignment as missionaries and we will be getting more thorough aviation training at the Ethnos360 Aviation department in McNeal, Arizona. As soon as we finish there, Lord willing, we will be heading overseas somewhere. We will find out in Arizona where we will be stationed overseas longterm.
Prayer requests:
- Vision trip to PNG
- Courtney & kids during Vision Trip
- Henry not getting more migraines
- Opportunities to share our ministry
We truly do want to keep up relationships! Please send us ways that we can be praying for you by messaging or calling us. If you have an update that you send out, please attach our email- richert.missions@gmail.com. We would love to hear what is new with you!
Brad and Courtney Richert 